Free quality pre-school available

I need to make a correction to Bill Schroer's column last week, in which he stated "But in Battle Creek, pre-school is either not available or too expensive for many families to afford."

Community Action's Head Start program serves hundreds of three and four year olds in Battle Creek. Head Start is a quality pre-school program focused on preparing children to succeed in kindergarten and beyond.

Only families whose household income is below the poverty line are eligible to enroll their children in Head Start. The great thing about Head Start is that it is free to families that would never be able to afford private preschool.

While Community Action does not run any of the state funded Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) pre-schools, hundreds of other children in the county are served by GSRP, which is also free and serves families with incomes up to 200 percent of poverty.

Quality pre-school, whether it is Head Start, GSRP, or private, has been shown to prepare kids to succeed in school. There is no question that more quality pre-school would benefit the community, but let's recognize the fact that we do have free quality pre-school, just not enough.

Nancy Macfarlane

CEO Community Action

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Free quality pre-school available

I need to make a correction to Bill Schroer's column last week, in which he stated 'But in Battle Creek, pre-school is either not available or too expensive for many families to afford.'